Pictures From Our Final Leadership Elite Class
Posted on June 8, 2013 by Ching under Leadership.
I completed Leadership Elite through the Center for Management Development at Wichita State University last month. I wish I would have known that we were going to be photographed on our last day. I would have fixed my hair and worn make up. LOL.
This is a photo of me with Bridget, Reed, and Dr. Graham.
This is our team photo. My teammates are (from left) David, Kerry, and Josh. I’m not sure how the teams were assigned, but I ended up on the tall team. LOL.
We all got desk clocks because our team did the best in the quizzes. Although, blue team (Reed’s team) gave us a run for it toward the end. We took off to an early lead, but we were running about even there are the end. They didn’t have Kerry on their team, though. She (and Adrian from the blue team) got 100% on the quizzes. She didn’t miss any of the questions at all. I joked that she Kerried our team and thus we came out on top. I’m corny and I love puns. Sue me.
Dr. Graham was one of my favorite professors in grad school so I was really grateful for the opportunity to take another one of his classes. Leadership Elite is a fantastic program and I highly recommend it. The fancy plaque is nice too.
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Time to Stock Up
Posted on June 8, 2013 by Ching under Food and Drink, Things to Do.
We picked up several bottles of wine from Grove’s the other day. Hopefully Brian will be in a sharing mood this weekend.
We drank one of them at the outdoor jazz concert the other night. This was our first bottle of Apothic Rose. We decided to give it a try because Brian loves Apothic Red. I actually think he likes it more than House Wine.
Anyway, we found Apothic White at my coworker’s liquor store in Derby a couple of months ago and liked it so when we saw this limited release Apothic Rose at Grove’s the other day, we naturally had to try it.
We had a nice little picnic across the lake from the stage.
Guess who won?
Brian doesn’t like the sun. Can you tell?
Speaking of Apothic White, they’re on sale right now at Extremo Vino. We may need to stop by there tomorrow after racquetball.
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In-Laws’ 40th Wedding Anniversary
Posted on June 5, 2013 by Ching under Events, Family.
Brian and I worked with his brother Kevin and our sister-in-law Kasey to throw a nice anniversary party for my in-laws. Brian’s father David is a member of the board of directors of the Kansas Museum of Military History (KMMH) in Augusta so we were to use their facility for the party. Brian put Kevin and Kasey in charge of decorations and then Brian and I were responsible for the food.
Since neither of us are great cooks, we naturally outsourced our portion. We’d had used Tuffles Catering at my work for some of our events so I was familiar with them already. We splurged a little on the catering (slightly going over budget), but how often do you get a chance to celebrate a 40th wedding anniversary these days?
The menu we put together consisted of salad with mixed greens with apples, feta cheese, sweet red peppers, walnuts, and red onion; chicken teriyaki (everyone seemed to really like that one); roast beef; rice pilaf; and green beans (which were surprisingly very good — even better than the ones I’d had at work). Truffles also provided rolls and butter to go with the meal, and cookies and brownies for dessert. The cost of the catering also included iced tea and lemonade.
We ordered catering for 35 people, but I think Truffles gave us extra food because even with JD present we still had plenty of food left over. LOL.
Here are some of the pictures of the food.
Chicken Teriyaki
Roast Beef
Rice Pilaf and Green Beans
Thanks to Denise at Truffles for coming to do the delivery and setup for our event.
Thanks to the guys for setting up the tables and chairs and thanks to Kasey for providing table covers and decorations. The tables looked very nice.
Here are some more pictures from the event.
Here’s a picture of Donna and David opening the anniversary present they received from Cousin Tracy before everyone showed up.
They seemed to have a great time. Brian and I did too. We hope that everyone else did as well. Thank you so much to everyone who came and celebrated David and Donna’s special day. See you all again in 10 years!
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Dinner by Chef Jay Dill
Posted on June 2, 2013 by Ching under Food and Drink.
Jay made us dinner last night. Dinner came with free cooking lessons.
Here he is demonstrating how to slice a pineapple.
He is such a show off! LOL.
Here he is slicing bell peppers…
..and chicken…
Brian was his helper.
The finished dish is a chicken stir fry consisting of bell peppers, a little bit of jalapeño, onions, garlic, and pineapple. It was actually pretty good.
Here’s another photo. (BTW, I contributed by making rice. Becca made us some guacamole which isn’t pictured. It was really good also.)
I was quite impressed. When I asked Jay where he learned how to cook, he explained that he was trained at the culinary school of “short order.” I guess he’s picked up some tricks of the trade from working in various kitchens over the past 30 years. Just kidding. He’s not that old. He’s worked in quite a few kitchens, though. He knows how to handle a knife, that’s for sure.
Thanks for making us dinner on Saturday night, Jay and Becca! We look forward to your next culinary creation.
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Our Covered Deck Just Got Shadier
Posted on June 1, 2013 by Ching under Home Ownership.
We love our new house and everything, but the one thing that we’ve always complained about Casa de Felitaciones is that the deck/backyard faces West so it gets way more sun than we like in the afternoons. There was a house behind us that we really wanted a couple of years ago (it’s a really beautiful house but we liked it mostly for the East-facing yard), but we were afraid to make an offer on it. Anyway, we found our house a year later and got a really good deal on it so we were willing to compromise on the yard orientation. We figured we could always get some sun shades for the deck, which we have finally done.
I’d been wanting to get sun shades since we moved last year but hadn’t found the right one until now. I found these Coolaroo sun shades
It blends in so well that you don’t even notice it when it’s retracted.
The other thing that I love about them is that they block the sun but not the light so you still get plenty of natural light. That was one of my concerns with putting some shades on the deck. I didn’t want it to get dark. I can’t begin to describe in words how well these shades fit my needs. They’re exactly what I wanted.
The only down side is that we underestimated the height of our ceiling. I thought the six-foot length would be sufficient. When we unroll the shades, they don’t quite reach the deck railing. Brian and I came up with an ingenious solution, though.
It’s not the prettiest solution but it works. Basically, we extended the tie downs by using nylon cord attached to a plastic clip. The mate of the clip is attached to our deck railing. That keeps the shade from flopping around in the wind. It’s a concern for us because it’s pretty windy in these parts. Anyway, when we are done, we just unfasten the plastic clips and roll the shade up. One part goes up with the sun shade and the other part is permanently affixed to the railing so we don’t have to mess with tying knots every time. All we have to do is fasten and unfasten the plastic clips. Mighty clever, right? I thought so.
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